Reading progress

Here is our current BJU progress:

DD5 is doing really well reading the weekly readers. She's very proud of being able to read them. We give her the option of reading the books to herself in bed at bedtime. She is picking up other books and trying to read them. When I read to my kids, she tells me to follow the words I read with my finger so she can keep up with where I am in the book. I think all of these are very positive signs that she is progressing in her reading.

The other day I watched DD5 form her letters on the workbook page and she just looked so grown-up and was doing so well. I was glad that we had picked a boxed curriculum. I realized that perhaps I could've provided all the same things on my own, but I would've constantly been questioning what I was doing. I still question sometimes, but I feel the curric has set a good pace and I am seeing progress. I was really struggling with the progression of teaching when I was putting things together on my own.

So that was all the positives. Here are a few negatives I've run across:

• Capital D: is made by dropping from top to bottom and then curving around to the top again. This makes a sloppy letter IMO. I think it is better to drop, retrace up, and then curve around to the bottom. Or - drop, lift your pencil & start back at the top, curve around. OTOH, I understand *why* BJU has capital D that way - in cursive, it is a similar movement but with an extra little flare at the bottom.
• Capital E: looks like a backwards 3. Again, its the cursive thing, so I understand it, just don't like it.
• One more note: I am sooo thankful that I taught DD5 her letter sounds BEFORE BJU. I think it has been much easier keeping up and I can't imagine what it would be like teaching her the curriculum without prior knowledge of letter sounds. So I highly recommend spending that year before Kindergarten learning letter sounds. I think BJU K4 has this focus, but I think it still teaches word formations, too. I don't have any experience with K4 though and have never actually seen it. It may be exactly what is needed before K5.